The Present’s “Illusion” Is The Kind Of Music Angels Play At Raves

The New York duo’s Break The Dawn EP is out April 7.

Rusty Santos and Mina Ohashi are The Present, a New York duo making music for the rave that's just beyond the gates of heaven: euphoric, inclusive, and if we're lucky, the soundtrack to our future. "Illusion," a new song premiering today on The FADER, is soothing, but still very much a drum-n-bass banger: perhaps this is what Goldie hears in his head when he meditates?

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"The track is about life being an illusion, all the way to its conclusion," The Present wrote in an email to The FADER. "Life=Illusion Conclusion=death. To make it aggressive, we loaded the sub and played it across a mono keyboard with fists. This track, to us, means transcendence, explosion and survival. 'It’s just illusion to conclusion, made of the same thing and I don’t see nothing wrong.'"